GW’s Student Coalition for Palestine on Friday resumed live streamed talks with officials on financial disclosure and divestment from Israel in a meeting marked by a mutual unwillingness to shift position.
Coalition representatives met with two officials from the Office of the Provost to discuss the group’s policy suggestions document, which outlines potential next steps for GW to disclose investments, divest from companies with ties to Israel and increase student involvement in GW’s financial meetings and decision making. When representatives pressed for a status update on GW’s consideration of their financial demands after meeting in May, officials responded by reiterating that GW would not commit to divestment and didn’t provide specifics about disclosure plans.
“Divestment is off the table,” said Deputy Provost for Academic Affairs Teresa Murphy, one of the two officials present at the meeting.
She added that investment decisions don’t get decided quickly and she’s only been involved in discussions about the coalition’s demands “for a few days.” University President Ellen Granberg said at a May meeting with representatives that officials would not commit to divesting from companies selling weapons to Israel or disclose University finances.
GW’s Socialist Action Initiative, a member student organization of the coalition, live streamed the meeting, which was the first time University officials have sat down with the coalition since May to discuss students’ demands and the third meeting the coalition has publicized.
“What is really being said here is that divestment for Palestinians in this ongoing genocide is not doable,” a coalition representative said.
Murphy and Associate Provost for Undergraduate Affairs and Special Programs Jeffrey Brand said they will ask officials for more information on the University’s progress toward financial disclosure for the next meeting, which participants scheduled for Sept. 13 from 12 to 2 p.m., but they are not prepared to discuss divestment.
“I thought we were just talking about disclosure,” Brand said.
Coalition representatives met in person in May with Granberg, Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes and Dean of Students Colette Coleman. On Friday, Murphy and Brand instead met with the coalition’s negotiations team, with one representative joining via video conference because she is barred from campus. Ilana Feldman, a professor of anthropology who has previously vocalized support for the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement, also attended the Friday meeting alongside the coalition representatives.
Coalition representatives during the meeting requested that the University disclose any donations and academic department funding that totals more than $20,000, including money sent to institutes and centers. The representative said the sum of multiple donations from the same source should count toward the total if the sum exceeds $20,000.
The representative asked that officials also disclose all externally funded research and investments that are processed through Strategic Investment Group — which they said handles a “vast majority” of GW’s pooled endowment. The endowment serves as the University’s financial base comprised of investments in stocks, real estate and other assets that officials dole out to fund scholarships, professorships, construction and additional GW projects.
“We want to know where that money is being invested in, but we also want to know where that money is coming from,” the representative said.
Murphy said she would relay the coalition’s request to officials, noting that Fernandes and his team are putting together a website on University investments — an apparent reference to a website Granberg announced in May to display publicly available financial documents that she said officials would develop over the summer.
In response, Feldman asked whether the website will include information on donations totaling more than $20,000, as the coalition requested.
“I honestly don’t know,” Murphy said, responding to Feldman. “It’s one of the things, and we’re going to say this a lot today, and in the future, we’ll take that back.”
A coalition representative reiterated Feldman’s ask for clarification on what points from the policy suggestions document officials will choose to include or omit on their financial disclosure website. The representative asked Murphy and Brand to sift through all of the coalition’s disclosure requests and provide reasoning for why the information will or will not be included on the website.
Brand said he received the policy suggestions document from the coalition at 6 a.m. Friday morning. The coalition did not immediately return a request for a copy of the policy suggestions document.
“If you could communicate to us what the difference is between what’s being included in that project and what is on this list,” a coalition representative said, referring to the coalition’s request for clarity on the contents that officials plan to include in the website.
Coalition representatives also requested student representation on the Board of Trustees’ Committee on Finance and Investments. The committee exercises “oversight and governance” over GW’s endowment, reviews the University’s financial statements and makes recommendations to the Board on “major financial and business matters,” per its website.
Trustees denied the Student Government Association’s request to add student voting members to the Board in 2017, claiming its bylaws prohibit students from serving as trustees.
Murphy said she doesn’t expect to get an answer back from officials on the representatives’ request by next week’s meeting.
A coalition representative said the group would like to have the “necessary back-and-forth” with officials about their policy proposals before the Board’s first meeting of the year, slated for Sept. 27. In response officials agreed to meet with the group on Sept. 13, though Feldman said she will not be able to attend. Officials said at the end of the meeting they would also look into finding an off-campus location for participants to meet so the student who is currently barred from campus can attend in person.
The coalition announced on Instagram Thursday their plans to meet with officials the next day at 11 a.m., reinforcing their commitment to their demands and refusal to “accept anything but complete divestment.” The coalition posted a full video of the discussion after the live stream Friday.
More than 100 people viewed Friday’s live stream and left comments in the chat feature. “gwhistory,” an Instagram account for the University’s history department, left several comments during the meeting condemning officials for not responding to the coalition’s divestment demands.
“One day every administrator will pretend that they supported divestment from the beginning,” one gwhistory comment read. “History will absolve this movement and justice will prevail!”
The coalition said in an Instagram post last month that officials agreed to five conditions that the pro-Palestinian group put forward to resume talks on its demands, including that a “trusted” faculty member join the coalition at all meetings. Officials also agreed to hold meetings with coalition representatives without a time limit and in “good faith,” exclude Provost Chris Bracey and allow coalition representatives to live stream all meetings, according to the coalition.
The coalition said Bracey “attacked students” at the pro-Palestinian encampment last spring. In a video posted on Instagram April 26, Bracey appeared to grab the phone of a student recording him while walking through the encampment.
Officials’ first meeting with the group came after the officials invited representatives from student organizations representing Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students to a 45-minute discussion about “broad community concerns” like Islamophobia and free speech — days after local police cleared the University Yard encampment and arrested eight GW students.
In the invitation, officials said the University would not consider changing its “endowment investment strategy,” academic partnerships or student conduct processes.
Coalition representatives also met with officials on May 13 but did not live stream discussions.
